Gawler Bypass is a major north–south route in the outer northern suburbs of the city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

, connecting

Main North Road Main North Road is the major north-south arterial route through the suburbs north of the Adelaide City Centre in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It continues north through the settled areas of South Australia and is a total of long, f ...

to the

Sturt Highway Sturt Highway is an Australian national highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is an important road link for the transport of passengers and freight between Sydney and Adelaide and the regions situated adjacent to the r ...

, bypassing

Gawler Gawler is the oldest country town on the Australian mainland in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the ...

. The route was built in 1963 in an attempt to redirect traffic on the national highway out of Gawler town centre and has been upgraded and realigned several times since then.

History

The first Gawler bypass was planned in the 1950s and built as a single two-lane carriageway around the town in 1963 with at-grade intersections and carried 3,000 vehicles per day. It ended at a tee-junction with Main North Road at the southern end, and followed an alignment that included what is now the southbound on-ramp and Brereton Road, Jack Cooper Drive over the Winckel Bridge, and Paternoster Drive to the railway bridge. The road was rebuilt in the mid-1980s as a dual carriageway with grade-separated intersections at the southern end in a new alignment, with new bridges over the Gawler River. At the time of approval, the bypass was carrying 7000 vehicles per day, and 300 collisions had been recorded between 1977 and 1982; it commenced construction at the end of 1985. Its total cost was $18 million, of which $13 million came from Federal funding. Construction of

Northern Expressway Northern Expressway, also known as the Fatchen Northern Expressway, is a 21 kilometre long controlled-access highway in Adelaide, South Australia. Since March 2020, the North–South Motorway continues west of Port Wakefield Highway and inters ...

in 2010 resulted in realignment of the northbound carriageway as part of creating a grade-separated intersection with smooth flow between the northern section of the bypass and both the Northern Expressway and the southern part of the bypass. As both roads lead broadly south, there is no provision to turn directly from one to the other. Road definitions also changed: the definition of Sturt Highway was lengthened a short distance west along the bypass to meet the expressway, resulting in a shortening of the bypass by a distance of 3.5km. It was designated National Route 20, updated to National Highway 20 in 1992, and to National Highway A20 in 1998; this was changed to route A52 south of the intersection with

when it opened in 2010. From late 2016, the entire length was re-designated route A20, with the Northern Expressway being re-designated route M2 (instead of route M20).

Exits and interchanges

References

{{Road infrastructure in South Australia Highways in South Australia Roads in Adelaide Freeways and highways in Adelaide Gawler, South Australia Bypasses in Australia

History

Exits and interchanges

See also

References